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The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe

Analysis

This poem is considered a pastoral lyric, a poem which expresses emotions in an idyllic setting. "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is about carpe diem (cease the day). It is about his hope to return to a Edenic life of free love.

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" consists of six stanzas each with four lines that consist of a AABB rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme work as a way to put structure and rhythm within the writing while the stanzas break up independent thoughts.

Poem

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
By 

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant poises,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherds's swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

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